Chapter 3 — The First System Message
The white light receded slowly, peeling back from Kael and Rian like fog lifting from a battlefield. The frozen monsters remained suspended mid-lunge, jaws open, teeth bared. Dust floated in the air like weightless ash.
Time itself seemed afraid to move.
A distant hum vibrated beneath the twins' skin, pulsing in sync with their heartbeats.
Then—
DING.
A tone rang out inside their minds, clear and metallic.
Kael's vision refocused first. Strange lines of glowing text hovered before him, written in no language he had ever learned.
Rian blinked hard, steadying his breathing. "Kael… are you seeing this?"
Kael nodded slowly. "Yeah. I think… the world's broken."
A new overlay appeared in front of both of them, perfectly synchronized:
[STATUS]
Name: Kael Veyren
Age: 16
Race: Human
World Rank: Low-Mortal World
Cultivation Rank: None
Sub-Rank: —
Potential: Primordial-Linked
Attributes
Strength: 5
Speed: 4
Endurance: 4
Dexterity: 4
Intelligence: 4
Perception: 4
Willpower: 7
Abilities:
??? (Origin Rank)
??? (Origin Rank)
[STATUS]
Name: Rian Veyren
Age: 16
Race: Human
World Rank: Low-Mortal World
Cultivation Rank: None
Sub-Rank: —
Potential: Primordial-Linked
Attributes
Strength: 4
Speed: 4
Endurance: 4
Dexterity: 4
Intelligence: 5
Perception: 4
Willpower: 7
Abilities:
??? (Origin Rank)
??? (Origin Rank)
The light vanished, and the ruin's stale air returned.
Kael let out a long exhale.
"…Origin Rank? What is that supposed to mean?"
Rian swallowed. "It means whatever's sealed inside us is… above everything we've ever heard of."
"Or someone made a mistake," Kael muttered. "Maybe we stole someone else's system."
Before Rian could respond—
DING.
Another message appeared.
[SYSTEM QUEST GENERATED]
Quest: SURVIVE THE ENCROACHING HUNT
Objective: Survive the three Savage-class monsters until the timer ends.
Timer: 03:00
Reward: — Partial Ability Unlock (Tier-0 Access)
Failure: Death.
Rian's breath caught. "Three minutes… Kael, we can't outrun them for that long."
Kael grinned weakly. "Then we don't run."
The frozen world suddenly lurched.
Time snapped back into place.
The monsters roared simultaneously, the sound stabbing through the cavernous ruins as they resumed their charge.
Kael stepped forward. "Rian—left one's mine!"
"You're bleeding."
"Yeah, well, so is it."
Rian moved anyway.
The first monster barreled toward Kael, wrecking stone and metal with each step. Its roar rattled his bones. Kael dodged sideways, barely avoiding its claws. Its swipe shredded the wall behind him, spraying debris.
"Faster… faster…" Kael hissed, pushing his body past its limit.
The monster charged again, jaws wide. Kael rolled beneath it, grabbing a chunk of broken masonry and driving it into the creature's eye. It howled, thrashing violently.
Kael's lungs burned. His legs shook.
Timer: 02:22
No way they could last that long. Not without—
His chest burned. Something inside him pulsed.
Rian fought with clean precision, each movement calculated. He ducked beneath the second monster's forelimb, using its momentum to slip behind it and slash the back of its knee with a rusted pipe he'd scavenged.
It barely cut through the hide, but it disrupted the monster's stride enough to keep him alive.
For now.
The third monster joined the pursuit, snarling as it entered the chamber.
Rian's eyes widened. "Kael!"
Kael glanced mid-fight. "What?"
"We're surrounded!"
Kael looked at the timer.
01:49
He spit blood to the side. "Good. Saves time."
The monsters pushed forward, slowly herding the twins into a corner of the ruin—shattered pillars behind them, collapsed stone blocking their escape.
Rian's breathing grew ragged. "We can't take hits. One clean strike and we're—"
His voice stopped.
The system vibrated again.
[WARNING]
Life-threshold reached.
Dormant abilities destabilizing.
Emergency channeling available.
Would you like to access Ability Fragment?
Y/N
Kael didn't hesitate.
"YES!"
Rian shouted the same an instant later.
A burning heat exploded inside their chests, racing through their veins like molten metal, too hot to endure yet impossible to resist. They staggered as the world warped around them.
Kael's fingertips crackled with faint black sparks—thin, flickering, more like static than lightning. But each spark made the air vibrate.
Rian's palms ignited with a small, wavering flame—black with a faint silver outline, unstable and flickering like a dying candle.
Both boys stared in disbelief.
Kael laughed breathlessly. "Oh… oh that's dangerous."
Rian nodded. "Very."
The monsters lunged.
Kael didn't dodge—he stepped straight into danger.
Black static burst from his hand. It wasn't powerful, not even enough to injure the monster, but the moment the crackling arcs touched its forelimb, the creature jerked violently as if struck by something alien.
Rian seized the moment. His black-silver flame flared, no larger than a coin, and he thrust his palm toward the second monster's face.
The flame touched fur.
The monster screamed.
It wasn't burned—not exactly. Instead, its body recoiled as if its instincts sensed something fundamentally wrong.
The ability was too weak to kill…
But strong enough to terrify.
"Kael!" Rian shouted. "Your flicker—hit its joints!"
Kael understood instantly.
He darted in, palm igniting with thin black currents, and slapped the monster's knee. The spark destabilized its movement; its leg buckled.
Rian leaped behind it and slammed both palms into its back. The black flame burst outward in a brief flicker, causing the monster to jerk away violently—giving Kael an opening.
He tackled the creature's side, forcing it to crash down.
The first monster lunged.
Rian kicked off the collapsing beast and rolled clear.
Timer: 00:58
Not enough time.
Not enough space.
Not enough power.
Kael's chest heaved. "Rian… combine?"
Rian nodded sharply. "Short sync. Three seconds."
"Three seconds is all we need."
They met in the center of the ruined chamber, back to back, palms touching. Something between their energies connected instinctively.
Black sparks from Kael met the black flame of Rian.
A pulse exploded outward.
Not strong.
Not stable.
Not controlled.
But enough.
The monsters froze—not physically, but internally—instinct screaming danger as the merged energy washed over them.
Kael surged forward, slipping beneath the first monster's forearm and pressing both hands into its chest. Sparks erupted, crawling across its hide.
Rian flanked the second, slapping his tiny flame against its jaw. The creature reeled.
Kael grabbed Rian's wrist. "Together!"
Their combined flicker burst between their palms, forming a small but volatile orb of black lightning-fire.
They slammed it into the ground.
The resulting shockwave ripped outward, throwing debris, dust, and unstable energy in all directions. The monsters were struck—not injured, but blasted backward into the ruins' walls, dazed and disoriented.
Timer: 00:00
A final tone resonated.
[QUEST COMPLETE]
Reward Granted:
— Tier-0 Ability Access (Unstable)
— Attribute Increase
— Minor System Synchronization
The world stilled.
Kael dropped to one knee, panting hard. "Oh… damn—"
Rian knelt beside him, clutching his chest as the energy slowly dissipated. "We barely survived."
Kael smirked weakly. "Barely's enough."
The monsters, recovering from the blast, snarled weakly but fled into the deeper ruins, instinctively retreating from a threat they couldn't understand.
Silence settled. Dust drifted slowly to the ground.
Then the system appeared again.
[STATUS UPDATED]
Kael Veyren — Updated Attributes
Strength: 6
Speed: 5
Endurance: 5
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 5
Perception: 5
Willpower: 8
Rian Veyren — Updated Attributes
Strength: 5
Speed: 5
Endurance: 5
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 5
Perception: 5
Willpower: 8
Abilities — Partial Access Unlocked
Kael:
— Black Lightning (Tier-0)
— Destruction (Locked)
Rian:
— Black Fire (Tier-0)
— Fate (Locked)
Kael let himself fall backward onto the ground, staring at the broken ceiling. "So this is real."
Rian sat beside him, calmer but pale. "It is."
"And we're Origin-ranked… whatever that means."
Rian considered. "It means we're different. And someone—or something—did this on purpose."
Kael rolled his head to look at him. "You're thinking conspiracy?"
"I'm thinking destiny," Rian said softly.
Kael snorted. "Same thing."
Rian didn't smile.
His eyes were on the deeper ruins, watching shadows shift where the monsters had retreated.
"Kael…"
"Yeah?"
"Those monsters weren't here by accident."
Kael sat up slowly. "You think they were hunting us."
Rian nodded once. "The quest was called Encroaching Hunt. They were coming whether we were ready or not."
Kael exhaled slowly. "Then we need to get stronger. Fast."
Rian looked down at his palm, where the faintest flicker of black flame still lingered. "And we will."
The ground shook.
Both twins whipped their heads around.
From the deeper tunnels came a distant roar—far louder than before. Far deeper.
Far more dangerous.
Kael tensed. "That's not a Savage."
Rian stood, eyes narrowing. "Let's move."
Kael rose beside him. "Back home?"
"No." Rian's red eyes glowed faintly. "Forward."
"Forward?"
"Toward whatever's coming."
Kael grinned. "Now you're thinking like me."
Rian shook his head. "No, Kael."
His eyes sharpened.
"You're starting to think like me."
They exchanged a nod—silent, unbreakable.
Then together, they stepped deeper into the dark ruins…
Toward the next challenge
Toward their awakening
Toward their impossible fate—
And toward a world that wasn't ready for them.